


some frozen devotion

by lanyon



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: De-Serumed Steve, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 05:24:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3107729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/pseuds/lanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Steve's serum is briefly reversed and only Bucky seems to realise that he hasn't changed</p>
            </blockquote>





	some frozen devotion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [haipollai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/haipollai/gifts).



> +A holiday gift for **haipollai** , based on the TFLN prompt: _Had to drive my booty call home because he had an asthma attack after we had sex .. How was your night?_  
>  +Title from Hozier.

The restructuring of power within HYDRA did not fill Rumlow with confidence but this was the final straw. The science was sound, allegedly, and there had been no villainous monologuing, and yet Captain America was still alive and the Winter Soldier had vanished. 

Somehow, there had been no eyes on the event itself and, when the smoke had cleared, all that remained of the recalcitrant relics was a pair of red boots and Rumlow needed this Cinderella dead.  
.

The plan had worked. Bucky had re-infiltrated HYDRA and none of their code-words or overrides or kill-switches had any effect beyond a vague itching under his scalp.

He wasn’t the most accomplished of covert operatives but Romanov had taught him a thing or two about inscrutability, which seemed like a fair exchange for shooting her in a non-fatal area. 

It was kind of surprising that HYDRA weren’t at all suspicious that the Winter Soldier had come back to them, after many months in the wind, and Bucky had passed the tests they had set. There were no surviving cryo chambers and it was disconcertingly easy to slip back into an expressionless existence. Perhaps it was muscle memory or perhaps his resting face was just as frightenng as Clint had implied (“Aw, murderous.”). 

Bucky was a gift horse and no one was looking in his mouth although weeks had passed without him being utilised. Perhaps they were more circumspect than he’d thought. They certainly weren’t wasting him on easy kills. Eventually, though, there was an evil plan that required the Winter Soldier. 

The evil plan was predictable: kill Captain America. 

Getting word to Steve was easy, thanks to Stark tech, and then all Bucky had to do was sit and wait to be deployed, like any good weapon. 

.

Steve had known about the ambush but no one had known about the actual secret weapon because it wasn’t Bucky and no one had been quite dumb enough to talk about it in front of him. It was some kind of reverse vita-ray that hit Steve like a punch in the stomach. 

Bucky’s heart was in his mouth as he stumbled through the resultant smoke-cloud, with Rumlow yelling in his ear to eliminate the target. Honestly, the smoke was unnecessarily showy but at least it’d give Bucky and Steve some cover to get away. 

Just as soon as he found Steve. 

He heard coughing and broke into a run. He was wearing his mask, which was an aesthetic he was looking forward to ditching. His jawline was a heroic jawline and shouldn’t be hidden. 

Concealed heroic jawlines aside, the mask was definitely helping in this smoke though he wondered about his vision, once he reached Steve. No, his perspective definitely wasn’t fucked up. Steve was tiny and drowning in the Captain America uniform. The sleeves hung down over his hands, the star looked positively colicky, all doubled over and distorted, and the previously nicely-packaged crotch area was a whole lot of excess fabric hanging down around his knees. Steve had one arm over his mouth and his eyes were watering as he coughed and coughed and the sound sent a chill down Bucky’s spine. 

“Report, Soldier, _report_!” Rumlow’s voice crackled in Bucky’s ear and he ripped the earpiece out and threw it to the side. He picked up the shield and slung it onto Steve’s back before slinging Steve over his shoulder and running like hell. 

.

Ten blocks away from ground zero, Sam swooped out of the sky. 

“Barnes! Put him down!”

“Are you fucking mad, Wilson? We’ve got to get him to a doctor.”

Sam looked surprised which, okay, it maybe looked a little weird, Bucky running away from the scene, carrying a still-coughing Steve. 

“I’m not going to hurt him, Sam, _christ_ , what do you think I am?”

“Your cover’s been pretty convincing, man,” said Sam, his voice a little shaky.

Ha, take that, Romanov.

“Look, I can get him back to Stark’s quicker.” 

It was humbling but it was true and New Yorkers were less likely to look up, even in an age of Spider-Man and Iron Man and show-offs. 

Carefully, Bucky eased Steve down and he held him against his chest for a moment. Steve’s lips were parted and his eyes were half-closed. “Hang in there, Steve,” said Bucky, softly, touching Steve’s cheek. “Remember what your ma used to say? Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. Nice’n slow.” 

Bucky was probably imagining the speed at which Sam gathered Steve into his arms. 

“Johnson wants a debrief asap.”

“But Steve-”

“Will be fine once I get him back to Stark’s. We saw it all happen and Stark’s already got the best respiratory physicians in the Tri-State Area flying in. Take the shield.”

Bucky blinked and Sam was gone. 

A car pulled up next to him and he crouched behind the shield. 

“Adorable, Barnes. Get in the car.”

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Director?”

Director Johnson put her sunglasses on. “I was in the neighbourhood.”

“Along with half the agency. It’s enough to give a guy a complex.”

.

The debrief took a very long time, in a bunker in goddamned New Jersey. Bucky understood the need to be thorough but, right now, Steve was in Manhattan, all asthmatic and breakable and where Bucky needed to be.

Twenty hours later, after a day-by-day summary of his time with HYDRA (Day Two: Sat in basement, stared at wall. Day Three: Sat in basement. Stared at wall. Day Four: Sat in basement. Stared at wall.) and after three interviews, with a psychologist and two psychic mutants, the powers that be finally decided that Bucky probably wasn’t a danger to himself or others. 

“Did the earth move for you, too?” he asked Johnson, as he left the bunker, blinking in the bright light.

“For that, Agent Barnes, you’re making your own way back to the city.”

.

New Jersey Transit was not ready for Bucky Barnes.

.  
By the time he got to Stark’s Tower of Compensating for Something, Bucky was not, admittedly, in top form. He was hungry, he’d lost his MetroCard and he was worried sick about Steve.

When sirens started blaring and the revolving door stopped, effectively imprisoning him, he was only stopped from putting his left fist through the glass by the memory of what had happened last time he had tried to do that, following a night out in the East Village with Thor. 

“Agent Barnes, apologies for the inconvenience but Mr Stark insisted on a full scan before we allow you to enter the Tower.”

“Can’t you just, like, hack into Johnson’s reports on me?” Bucky rested his forehead against the glass. “Is Steve okay?”

“We already acquired the files, Barnes. Just hang tight while JARVIS finishes scanning you. Nothing invasive this time, I promise.”

“And Steve?”

“I can’t figure out if he’s always this angry and it’s just more obvious in a small package or whether he’s genuinely more pissed than usual.”

“Scan complete, Agent Barnes. Sir, all biometric readings are within normal parameters.”

“Welcome home, Barnes. Hopefully, Cap’ll be happy to see you. He hasn’t exactly been a ray of sunshine.”

The elevators in the tower never moved fast enough for Bucky’s liking but, eventually, he got to Steve’s floor. 

Steve was sitting on the couch, wrapped in blankets and scowling at the television. He was wearing his own pyjamas, and they hung loosely, showing the notch at the base of his throat, where Bucky wanted to stick his face and breathe in. He wanted to listen to Steve’s heart beating, and maybe feel it like a bird hammering against Steve’s sternum, against Bucky’s lips. It was not an unfamiliar urge. 

“Steve.” 

“There’s nothing on television and where the hell have you been?”

“Can’t do much about the first part, Steve, and, yeah. Sorry. Got here as quick as I could but seems like not many people trust me around these parts.”

“What? Wait a minute - they sent you back to the guys who tortured you _twice_ and the don’t trust you? That is rich. That is fucking--” Steve struggled to stand up and Bucky had to wonder who the hell had held him down long enough to tuck him in. Suddenly, Steve started coughing again, his whole body racked with spasms.

“Woah, woah. Steve. Sit down, buddy.” 

This was like old times, and not in a good way. Steve gestured to the end table, where there were three bottles of pills and two inhalers. 

“Blue one,” he managed.

Bucky handed the inhaler to him and watched, fascinated, as Steve used it with the sort of familiarity that suggested he’d already needed it a few times. 

“You okay?” he asked, finally sitting down next to Steve and resting his hand at the base of Steve’s neck.

Steve nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “Hate this.” 

He sighed and shifted to press his face against the side of Bucky’s neck. With a hmph, he pressed a kiss to Bucky’s throat. 

“Everyone’s treating me like a goddamned porcelain doll. I’m not going to _break_.”

“I know you’re not,” said Bucky. He stroked Steve’s hair and wriggled a bit to get the blankets around them both. “C’mon, let’s find something crap to watch so we can make out for a while.”

“This is why I needed you to come home to me.”

.

The next morning, Bucky watched as Steve took eight tablets and two inhalers. He tugged Steve against his body and kissed him and he relished the way Steve melted against him. Bucky’s left hand was down the back of Steve’s sleep-pants and Steve was making some pretty interesting sounds against Bucky’s mouth when a buzzer sounded out.

“Apologies, sirs, but Doctors Temple and Strange and Mr Stark are here to see you.” 

There was just enough time to adjust their pants and look at each other ruefully before Tony walked into the kitchen. 

“Ah, Barnes. No homicidal urges overnight?

“No, thanks though, Stark.”

“Well, Captain Rogers,” said Dr Temple. “The good news is that your blood tests are okay. Aside from the anaemia, kidney dysfunction and thyroid issues, of course. They are getting better though, which suggests that this is temporary. I’m a bit worried about how flushed you are though. I would have expected the antibiotics to be taking effect by now.” 

 

“Maybe Barnes needs to be on antibiotics, too. He’s looking kinda pink.”

“Fuck you, Stark. Excuse me, ma’am.”

“That’s quite okay, Agent Barnes,” said Dr Temple. “I’ve heard worse in the ER. In any case, Captain Rogers, I think a nebuliser is warranted.” 

“Can we go back to the bit where this is temporary?” asked Steve. 

“It appears to be,” said Dr Strange. “A primitive magic was used. I imagine the intention was that you’d be dead before it began to reverse.”

Bucky felt a cold trickle of horror down his spine and stared at Steve.

.

“I could have killed you, Steve. If HYDRA had any sense, they’d’ve tried to wipe me again.”

“You’d never hurt me, Buck.”

Bucky grimaced. “Some bullets to the abdomen and a beat-up face suggest otherwise, Steve.”

Steve put his hands on Bucky’s shoulders. “You wouldn’t,” he said, stubbornly. He kissed Bucky, hard and demanding. “And I’ll be back to normal soon.”

Bucky couldn’t help it; he reached for Steve, pulling him onto his lap. Steve definitely wasn’t supposed to engage in strenuous activity until he was back to normal but Bucky never could resist temptation, especially when temptation looked like Steve, wearing one of Bucky’s shirts. 

Bucky tugged the shirt off over Steve’s head and laughed softly as Steve plucked impatiently at Bucky’s shirt, too. It was good, though, so good when they were chest to chest, kissing feverishly. 

“C’mon, Buck,” said Steve, reaching into Bucky’s pants and giving him a squeeze. Bucky smiled, open-mouthed, against Steve’s cheek and awkwardly shimmied out of his pants while trying to keep Steve clutched against him. 

“Never got to do this, before,” said Steve. They both looked down, forehead to forehead, at Steve’s slender fingers, wrapped around Bucky’s dick. “Never knew I could.” 

“Fuck,” said Bucky. “ _Fuck_. Get your pants off, Steve, or I swear to god--”

Steve slipped to the side, shoving down his pants and kicking them away and Bucky pressed him down against the couch cushions. “Jesus, Steve, look at you.”

Steve snorted. “Right. ‘m quite the catch.”

“No,” said Bucky. “No, but you _are_. You always were, you dumb fuck.” He ran his hand down Steve’s chest, which was pale and too thin. He could’ve counted Steve’s ribs except he was much more concerned with getting his mouth onto Steve’s pale skin and tracing a path down to Steve’s cock, which was starting to chub up. “Love you, Steve,” he said. 

“Yeah,” said Steve, reaching down to tangle his fingers in Bucky’s hair as his legs dropped open wider. “Gonna fuck me, Bucky?”

Bucky rested his chin on Steve’s thigh and grinned up at him. “You bet. Just wanna suck you a while longer, yeah?” 

Steve gestured with one hand and an impish grin, _if you must_ , and Bucky quickly stifled his own laughter by swallowing Steve dwn.

.

“What I don’t understand is how an asthma attack was induced just by sitting on the couch,” said Dr Temple, bewildered. 

Bucky had to leave the room, for fear that he’d give himself away. Steve could ream him out for cowardice later.

.

“So, Cap. Seems like your ineffective self-preservation skills pre-date your embiggening. Who knew?”

Bucky raised his hand. “I did. I knew.” 

Steve shot a dirty look Bucky’s way before it dissolved into laughter. “Only ‘cause you were always there with me.” 

“Antediluvian codependency alert,” said Stark. He clapped Steve on the shoulder. “I’m gonna leave you old folks to your bingo night, or whatever it is you do to entertain yourselves.” He paused. “It’s good to have you back, Cap.”

After Stark left, Steve looked at Bucky, evidently bewildered. “But I never left.”

“I know,” said Bucky. “I know.”


End file.
